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Re: Circuit Gem VMU

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2019 8:12 pm
by SparkySid
Thank you for this build @smoki86!
Looking at your "bonus picture while I had it open" shows quite a few component indents on the battery. Is it still too thick at 4.5mm? Wondering if there is still enough space to shim in a plastic card between the battery and the Pi Zero to prevent any punctures with long term use?

Did you shorten the interior screws that hold down the Circuit Gem? They seemed about 2mm too long when I test fit them.

Re: Circuit Gem VMU

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2019 8:50 pm
by smoki86
Yeah, a few components are just a bit too thick, so ideally you could replace them. but 4,5mm seems to work fine without - the indents arent too bad and were mostly from the test fittings and it looks even more abused as I used this battery in my own build where I could not get it to fit at all.
I dont think there is much risk of puncture after it is closed up, everything is a tight fit, nothing moves and the VMU is rather stiff.
And no, no shortening of screws was required, except for the battery cover, which is pretty much only the head of the screw glued in place so that it looks nice.

Re: Circuit Gem VMU

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2019 1:24 am
by sygyzy
Can you give more details about the parts you removed on the Pi Zero? At first you said the battery you chose didn't require removing any parts then later you said you removed connectors but "did not replace capacitors". What does this mean?

Re: Circuit Gem VMU

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2019 1:54 am
by smoki86
I "only" removed all the connectors. I did not require removing any components from the PI.
I thought this was worth mentioning as replacing the components (I guess the bigger ones are 2 capacitors) is quiet a lot harder for me than removing the connectors.
So, I did remove the HDMI, 2 USB and Camera connector. No chance getting the battery in there without doing that, the 400 would be fine though.

Re: Circuit Gem VMU

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2019 3:53 am
by 666dsa666
smoki86 wrote:
Tue Feb 26, 2019 1:54 am
I "only" removed all the connectors. I did not require removing any components from the PI.
I thought this was worth mentioning as replacing the components (I guess the bigger ones are 2 capacitors) is quiet a lot harder for me than removing the connectors.
So, I did remove the HDMI, 2 USB and Camera connector. No chance getting the battery in there without doing that, the 400 would be fine though.
You can get the battery a bit higher, right between the two screw holes and the highest components should be right in the unused part of the case, I was even able to add a bit of two-sided tape on the battery just in case and it fits well ;)

I've use a Pi Zero Non-W though so it might not be true in your case.

Re: Circuit Gem VMU

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2019 8:29 am
by smoki86
That could work, my battery is a bit wider than the 2 screw holes are apart, I am not using the recommended one, just one I had around. But I am good for this build, everything is OK as it is.
I have a few more batteries ordered for the next builds (the ones from the wiki) and will see if I can use that there :)

Re: Circuit Gem VMU

Posted: Sat Mar 02, 2019 3:11 pm
by itatton
Thanks so much for posting the pics of your VMU case smoki86! I was having a hard time getting mine seated properly and your pictures were a huge help.

Re: Circuit Gem VMU

Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2019 4:54 am
by smoki86
Added the L/R buttons!

I like them in the lid, easy to reach and feels nice. There wasnt any room in the case anyway with the 800mah battery.
It was a veeery tight fit, I scaped a bit of the gem so it fits inbetween the switches.
Shot 1Show
vmulr.jpg
vmulr.jpg (164.93 KiB) Viewed 8546 times
Shot 2Show
vmulr2.jpg
vmulr2.jpg (166.72 KiB) Viewed 8546 times
Inside the lidShow
vmulr3.jpg
vmulr3.jpg (187.15 KiB) Viewed 8546 times
As a bonus I now have a security line to not lose the lid :)

Re: Circuit Gem VMU

Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2019 4:55 am
by kite
Do both your L and R buttons work? :) only asking as a few users in another thread have issues with R1

EDIT: PS, fantastic idea on placement

Re: Circuit Gem VMU

Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2019 4:56 am
by smoki86
Wow that was a quick response ^^ No, Only L, the other post was from me ;)